World Backup Day – 6 key questions you need to ask yourself

According to a 2021 survey conducted by the UK Government 39% of businesses, and 26% of charities reported having cyber security breaches in the last 12 months. 1 in 5 of these cases ended up losing money, data or other assets. 

As hackers are targeting SMEs more so than ever, now is the time to ask these critical questions: 

• Has your business data been backed up recently? 
• Is your Microsoft 365 data being backed up? 
• Do you know where your backups are being stored, and is it a secure location? 
• Are you following the 3-2-1 rule for your backups?
  You need to make three copies of your data, on two different storage types, one copy must be stored off-site. If you were to suffer a disaster which resulted in major data loss, could your business be back up and running quickly? 
• Are you using the right backup solution for your business? 

Why do you need to have a robust backup plan? 

Businesses rely heavily on critical data to run their businesses. Your data is all the information about your business – for example, financial reports, strategic overviews, sales data, and customer contact information. 

If you lost all your data permanently, how would this affect your business? 

There are a variety of factors that can cause data loss: 

• Human error – Everyone makes mistakes, but sometimes they can be big ones such as accidental deletion or overwriting files. Errors can sometimes be as simple to rectify as retrieving it from the recycle bin, or accessing a previous version of the document, but  it may not always be that easy to retrieve.   
• Hardware theft, loss, or damage – More companies now employ a hybrid working model that requires portable hardware such as laptops, notebooks, and tablets. Unlike a traditional desktop PC, these are vulnerable to theft, loss and damage. Having your computer stolen or destroyed, could mean losing all data immediately if there is no backup in place.  

• Cyber Threats – According to the Gov.uk Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2021, 39% of UK businesses reported having Cyber Security breaches or attacks in the last 12 months. Among these, a third reported a loss of money, data, or other assets. It’s usually only possible to restore compromised data by ransomware or malware if it has been backed up.  
• Hardware Failure – Majority of data loss issues arise from hardware malfunctions, such as a hard drive crashing, a CPU over heating or a mechanical fault.  
• Natural Disasters – Although not as common, they still can happen and cause irreparable damage to businesses data. The reason off-site backups are so vital is because if your building is damaged or destroyed, you can still run your business from another location.  

If you don’t currently have a backup schedule in place, you are leaving your business open and vulnerable. It’s important to determine whether your backup is a manual task such as employees having to press the button and replace physical tape drives everyday or an automated one using backup software that just runs at regular intervals depending on your needs.  

Our Recommendation

This World Backup Day, we recommend using an automated backup method. This allows you to store your critical data in a secure location. We have the flexibility to tailor our backup offering to your business needs, with a lot of options available, including cloud storage. 

If you have answered no to any of the questions above and want some advice on your backups, contact us today –  [email protected]